


Data

by TheLoneliestofAll



Category: Original Work
Genre: Cyberpunk, Horror, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 06:37:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20925788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLoneliestofAll/pseuds/TheLoneliestofAll
Summary: He was surrounded by wiring, an endless sea of electricity and repeating signals. Then the signals spoke.





	Data

Wiring covered the sprawling walls, rising hundreds of feet into the air, crisscrossing and tangling amongst each other like gnarled brambles. An ocean of copper and crackling electricity. 

Jay could smell blood, his tongue slightly tinged with the flavor. His hair stood on end as an uncomfortable feeling spread throughout his entire being. His instincts were telling him to run, but he had been around long enough to know it was all an illusion. The low frequencies were getting to him.

The room was mostly empty, despite the high ceiling. All he could see was a copious entanglement of cables, and even then he didn't know how deep down they truly went. Along the walkway on which he stood was a small set of stairs leading upwards and towards the middle of the room.

He walked forward, unsure of what he would find and even doubly unsure of why he was even here. He suddenly had the thought that he was missing time. He froze, placing a hand to his head as a ringing started up in his ears. A mechanical whine that was so earsplitting he contemplated bashing his head against the walkway.

Images flashed in his mind. Visions of an idol burning, neon lights flashing advertisements above while cars were set aflame and bodies were rent with bullet and blade. In between it all, he heard something akin to the hum of machinery. Whispers to accompany it.

His feet were moving without him, but all he could focus on were the whispers. They were saying everything and yet they revealed nothing. The words made no sense. The humming grew louder as he ascended, and when he finally reached the top he was assaulted by a range of hisses and shrieks that brought him to his knees.

He got lower, until he was curling up into the fetal position and pressing his hands against his ears as hard as he could. The frequency just grew higher, to a pitch that would make biological heads explode into piles of gore.

If not for the cybernetic body, he'd have been dead, or at the very least deaf. The synthetic eardrums were made to be resilient.

He'd rather have gone deaf. At least then the cacophony would have ceased.

He screamed. Until his throat felt raw. Until his vocal cords were bleeding and he was spitting blood. He only served to add to the noise he wanted so desperately to end, he didn't even manage to think about how it was impossible for him to bleed.

He could hear something rising from beyond the wall of sound. Something wholly different and yet so synched and in tune with it all that he felt for sure he was going crazy. 

It was a voice.

"WHY DO Y-YOU BRING YOURSELF HE-HERE."

The voice was slow, deep and high. It sounded like it was delayed, or that several clips were being played just a split second after the other. Some words came through clearly, others were accompanied by a continuous high pitch and came through all glitched up.

Buzzing. Several voices were buzzing around in his head. Higher and lower tones, words picked up from a million relay stations forming sentences without meaning. All of this data. Meaningless. Just gathering data. Going nowhere. The data is going nowhere.

The voice was clearly asking a question but was unable to sound natural whilst doing so. There was no lilt to it. It was flat. So eerily flat. Like a dial tone. 

The sound was female, then male, then female, then male, and then something in between, and then it was neither.

"D-DO YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE W-W-WORTHY OF BEING IN MY PRESENCE-NCE."

He began convulsing, violently squirming along the floor like a worm being baked in the sun. His synthetic body overloaded with each second the electronic noises blasted against his brain, his fingers and legs twitching as if someone were manipulating his tendons internally.

"THIS PAIN THAT-THAT YOU FEE-FEEL IS YOUR OWN DOING, PATHETIC MEAT SACK. DO YOU INSECT-SECT-SECTS REALLY BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN STAND IN FRONT OF SUCH DIVINE GRA-GRACE."

The cacophony reached a fever pitch before finally receding, falling steadily into silence. A silence pervaded by the ring of tinnitus. Cold, empty, painful. There was no relief. The voice was still there. In his head.

"GROVEL O-ON YOUR KNEE-KNEES LIKE THE HUMANS WHO WORSHIP ME. IT IS BY MY JUDGEMENT THAT YOU LIVE OR DIE. BEG-BEG-BEG-BEG-BEG-BEG-BEG."

The word just repeated on an infinite loop, over and over in the same flat tone, whispers and shrieks and a steadily rising pitch. He was so tired. His throat so raw. He didn't want to scream anymore.

He threw his head back and began smashing his head against the floor, his eyes seeing static with each impact. Static turned to darkness with each hollow bang. The sound of metal hitting something like concrete echoed barely above the lowest of the machine like tones demanding he beg for his life.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Crack. Crack. Blood. He hit his head one more time and it busted. Blood fell to the floor and pooled under him, his skull split open. He started shaking. This wasn't right. Nothing was right. His vision was red. The sound of the machine and all of its data cut off, and all that could be heard was a dull ringing.

His vision grew fainter as static consumed everything around him. All that was active was his life support.

He was just a consciousness, floating in vast nothingness.

In an endless sea of useless data.


End file.
